Blue whale Facts

Blue whale Facts

Blue whale is the largest animal on the planet. It can be found in all oceans of the world. They usually spend the summer in arctic water and migrate to southern (warmer) waters during winter time. Blue whales are very old creatures - they exist on the Earth 54 million years. Number of blue whales decreased drastically in the first half of the 20th century when whalers hunted them nearly to extinction. Today, blue whales are under protection and their number managed to increase a bit. They are still endangered animals with less than 4500 animals left on the planet. Besides hunting, blue whales are threatened by ocean pollution, increased sea traffic (they die after collisions with boats), climate changes and oil spills.

Interesting Blue whale Facts:

Blue whale is the largest animal that ever lived on the planet! They can reach 100 feet in length and 150 tons in weight. Their length equals the length of two school busses and their weight equals the weight of 30 adult elephants.

Blue whales evolved from hippopotamuses. They developed streamlined shape (responsible for graceful movement through the water), transformed their front limbs into fins, reduced their hind legs and developed strong and wide tail (sized like a professional soccer net).

Around 100 people can fit in the mouth of the blue whale, and yet, it eats one of the smallest animals on the planet - krill (shrimp-like invertebrates).

Blue whales are filter-feeders. They swallow huge amount of water with krill and filter the food from the water. Instead of teeth, they have keratinous (human nails and hair are made of the same material) plates, called "baleen", which act like a comb, which releases swallowed water and keeps the krill inside the mouth. Blue whale eats 4 to 6 tons of krill every day.

Blue whale breathes using the lungs. It has huge nostril on the top of its head (baby can crawl through it) through which it exhales. Exhaled air, which looks like a fountain, can reach the height of 30 feet (like a three-story building).

Heart of the blue whale is the same size as the Mini Cooper. It beats 5 to 6 times in a minute while on the surface and 3 times while diving. Blue whale's major arteries and veins are so large that small child can pass through them.

Blue whales swim 5 miles per hour, but they can accelerate to 30 miles per hour when threatened.

Blue whales sleep while swimming. They use only half of their brain while sleeping.

Blue whales are the loudest animals on the planet. Their songs can be heard miles away, because their call has 190 decibels (peak of the rock music is 150 decibels).

1Blue whales communicate via songs. They are solitary creatures which gather during breeding season. Scientists believe that whales can hear songs even if they are 1000 miles away from each other. Blue whales produce sounds for echo-location also (they navigate through the water by listening the sound which bounces off from the objects in front of them).

Besides humans, the only predators of blue whales are orcas and great white sharks.

Female gives birth to one baby after one year of pregnancy. Baby weighs 3 tons and reaches 25 feet in length.

Baby drinks 100 gallons of milk each day and gains 9 pounds each hour (200 pounds per day).